The countdown is on

This was meant to be our last summer in Italy. I mean to say it was our last summer in Italy since it's now autumn. If you read this blog every now and then you will recall that bel marito applied and was accepted for Australian permanent residency. Before bella bambina was born and before the accident it was planned that we would leave Italy around the end of November. She was meant to be born mid September and we had calculated the time it would take to get her Australian residency and her Australian passport thinking that by November everything would be ready and we would be right to go. Obviously we did not calculate the accident which put us back a little and made things a little more complicated. The accident however has NOT stopped us! We are all booked and set to leave Italy on the 13th of December, in order to be home in time for my birthday (16th of December) so that finally after who recalls how many years I can celebrate with my twin.

You can say that we are a little disappointed that our last Italian summer didn't exactly go as planned. Oh what high hopes we had! We were planning a little Italian seaside break the week before bella bambina was to be born (thankfully I hadn't got around to booking it), we wanted to go for more day trips and visit some of our favourite or not yet discovered places, we wanted to take bella bambina to the beach...we wanted to do a lot of things which we haven't done. I am happy to say however that bel marito and I are not people who leave things until the last minute. We managed to make it to Barcelona while bella bambina was safely asleep in my stomach and we took bel bambino to the beach most days so the summer was not entirely spent in the hospital. And we will be back for more summers. As tourists the next time.

Our trip home may be a little awkward. I am not sure if I will be on crutches since my knee - the bane of my life - is still locked. I didn't hurt my knee in the accident but had the metal rods inserted there to keep my hip still since it was fractured into a million little pieces. My knee therefore was set in place for 50 long days and they tell me it's going to take time for it to unlock and function normally. I go to the best rehab everyday, possibly the best rehab in the whole country since it is famous amongst sport stars, most of who travel from as far as Spain to get back into motion here. I will probably have to continue rehab in Melbourne but the important thing is to just get us onto that plane. So what if bella bambina has to enter on her Italian passport with a 3 month tourist visa, so what if we will have an interesting time at immigration trying to explain that! Winter is setting in, summer is awaiting us in Australia and I just want to be gone from here. We wanted to leave Italy with happy memories...we have happy memories yes along with some bad but this experience has not scarred us for life. We will be back, maybe before we had hoped since we have an ongoing insurance case which is a story in itself...but much to the fear of the locals this accident will not stop us from returning - for a holiday.  And this blog is not finished yet.

And then there were 4.

I'm still here...the new year has been a busy one already. Since last writing we have gone and come back from a summer holiday in Australia. Bel marito's permanent Australian visa has been accepted. Bel bambino turned one and finally got his first tooth. And me, well...let's just say the new year started with another bel bambino making his way into my tummy!

So yes, it's been a busy year so far. We are still here in Malito, in Italy and will be most probably until November. Baby is due in September so one we get its citizenship sorted off we will migrate to Australia. Until then I will try and write. I have so much so say but just no time. Everything is still driving me crazy, the weather, my job, to cost of petrol, the unpleasant hospital staff, the chaos and the way that things jus don't work here. So yes, ideas for many a post!

How to migrate

Many people are shocked when I tell them just how long the application is to migrate to Australia. They assume since I am Australian, and that bel bambino is now Australian that bel marito should be able to walk straight on in. No such thing. For those who have never visited Australia perhaps you didn't know that even a tourist requires a visa. A tourist visa is easy to get via the Internet and free too, but our application cannot be done online and is far, oh so far from free.

We are applying for the Partner Visa (subclass 309/100) which is for married and de facto couples. I am bel marito's sponsor and we are applying off-shore which means that when the visa is accepted (we are hopeful) we must be outside of Australia for it to be granted. If bel marito is granted the 309 visa this is a temporary visa which entitles him to live in Australia for 2 years. During this time anyone on the 309 visa can find work as this visa will allow it but they cannot claim social service benefits. When the 2 years are up each case is looked at again and if the couple is still together then a permanent 100 visa is granted which means the applicant can stay in Australia for ever and work and live as one of us, with access to benefits.  Sometimes a couple can be lucky and be granted the 100 visa immediately if they have been together long enough. Maybe since we have been together for 5 years and have a bel bambino we will be lucky.

We are not using an immigration agent since we don't think it's necessary. Perhaps if you come from a high risk country or have a criminal record then it would be advisable...I am no expert, but I think we can do it ourselves. Our application is about 2cm thick at the moment, and hopefully it will be finished this week so we can send it to be assessed. We need to show that we have a '..mutual commitment to a shared life as husband and wife to the exclusion of all others. Show that we have a genuine and continuing relationship. Show that we are living together and that bel marito meets health and character requirements...'

Now how do we prove that our relationship is genuine? Well, the Australian Immigration websites provides a  lot of information thankfully which goes a little something like this:

• History of relationship (statutory declarations from applicant and sponsor) - how we met, when the relationship developed, when we decided to marry or become de facto, how we support each other financially, physically and emotionally and when this level of commitment began, any periods of separation - when and why etc... and future plans. We have nearly finished these, mine is a whopping 5 pages since I can't seem to condense 5 years into less pages.

• Evidence of relationship FINANCAL aspects: evidence of joint ownership real estate, cars etc... joint loans, joint bank accounts, sharing of household bills and expenses. This is our problem area. We have a joint bank account and we both used my British bank account so I've printed off loads of bank statements. That's all we have for this section though...

• The nature of the household: we have to provide evidence of our living arrangements, joint ownership or rental of the place we live, joint responsibility of children, correspondence addressed to us both at the same address. We have some from this section. In the statutory declaration we've written how we look after the baby. We have residency certificates which show us as a nuclear family at the same address and we have letters and postcards addressed to us both.

• Social context of the relationship: How friends and family view the relationship. Joint invitations, statutory declarations from people saying they know us both as a couple, evidence of joint travel, joint participation in sporting, cultural and social activities.  This section is ok, we have heaps of joint travel evidence, photos of us with each others family, stat decs from family and joint invitations.

• The nature of our commitment to one another: Knowledge of each others personal circumstances, long term intentions, evidence of how relationship was maintained when we were apart. This section should be ok. We have bel bambino which is pretty good proof that we have long term intentions! Also we have emails from when we were apart.

On top of this we have printed off our facebook pages which shows our relationship status and comments from friends and family who make reference to us both. I've printed my mobile phone plan which shows bel marito and his parent's phone numbers as my deal. We have emails, health care forms, I've printed pages off this blog. To be bel marito's sponsor have to prove that I can support him financially in Australia. A little hard when I have worked a lot cash in hand and now get poor pay, but we have old and new payslips, contracts, bank statements and if this is not good enough for them then my parents will be our support.

Once our case has been opened, criminal checks and medical checks will be requested. So, I hope this answers some of your questions. All I can say is that if you are Australian and have even the smallest thought of migrating one day then please, keep anything and everything you can to prove you are a couple. I used to throw everything away until my twin sister told me not to a few years ago. We had no plans to migrate then, but agreed to keep plane ticket stubs, emails etc... and now how thankful am I!
 

He's Australian!

 
It's official. Bel bambino is now Australian! We received a lovely certificate in the post the other day and now we have to get him a passport. We need to apply in person at the Australian Embassy in Rome so we have decided to make a little holiday out of it and go up to Rome for 2 nights next weekend. I must say that when bel bambino heard the news he was very excited!

We haven't yet completed the Australian migration application. The form itself is not so long, but the evidence required is. We need proof of everything, joint finances, proof that the relationship is genuine such as photos, love letters, cards, joint travel, proof of income for me to be bel marito's sponser, we're printing off old emails, bank statements payslips, residency certificates, birth certificates....gosh, the application is about 1cm thick at the moment and growing. Hopefully once we have some of our house documents finalised we can apply.    

Australian citizenship via decent

Bel bambino was born Italian and will soon be able to add the Australian flag to his belt. He is automatically entitled to be an Australian citizen since I am an Australian citizen. I downloaded the application off the internet, filled in the form, sent certified copies of our passports and birth certificates, residential proof and photos and of course paid the fee. It should have been a very easy, straight forward process but thanks to the comune here the paper work too a little longer then normal.

Our first issues with the comune  was when I asked them to sign a part of the form and the back of bel bambino's photo. It was very simple, name, address, phone number but the lady would not sign it since she said she could not understand. Fair enough you say, but she speaks a little English and admitted that she understood name, address etc... She wanted me to go to the Australian consulate which happens to be far away in Rome and officially translate the documents. She also wanted to stamp the front of bel bambino's photo which is not allowed.

Part of the citizenship form says the photo must be clear, unmarked and here she was hovering over it with her big, fat comune stamp. I tried calmly and then not so calmly explaining that the forms had to be sent to London and they didn't want a stamp on the front of the photo. In Italy apparently to verify identify one has to stamp the front of the photo and this woman could not comprehend that in another county a stamp was not necessary. She told me that if I sent the form without the stamp then I would be stopped by police when I tried to leave the country. I had no idea what she was on about, I was flabbergasted whilst trying to understand her strange mutterings. Then, to make matters worse her colleague said why didn't we just fly to Australia and do the citizenship there!..........Um, because bel bambino is not Australian yet and if we fly to Australia on his Italian passport 1. we will have to apply for a tourist visa 2. it will cause problems in the future when we process his Australian citizenship 3. it costs thousands and I means thousands to fly there 4. and it takes a day just in the plane so when do I have time or money to do this?

Bel marito dragged me out of the comune just before my screaming fit started. Well at least we got an international, multilingual birth certificate from them, he said.

Or did we.

After finding someone else authorised to sign the documents, we sent the forms off to London. British people being as efficient as they are meant that a few days later, just as the post reached them, an officer from the Australian High Commission called me. Does bel bambino have a different surname from his father asked the lady? No, I said confused. It seems as though the birth certificate is wrong then, said the very kind and understanding lady. What?

I grabbed a copy and low and behold the good old comune had written the wrong names in the wrong boxes. Stupid me for not having checked the document myself, but I assumed a birth certificate would have the correct information. Bel marito too never thought to check. I was so embarressed and so, so angry since I am in a hurry to get this citizenship which takes 1 month to process.

We went back to the comune the next day. Bel marito asked me to stay outside. Me being me meant I couldn't just stand around outside, and when I over heard that the lady was trying to white out the mistake and type over it with a type writer I marched in. We cannot send that to the Australian High Commission! I cried. Why? It will be correct. They probably already think I'm mad sending an incorrect birth certificate and now if I send a white out typed thing they will just laugh and through the application back in my face!!

I was sent back outside again since I can't always control my temper. Finally bel marito walked out with a clearly printed, correct Italian birth extract. No more international birth certificates for us.

So now we are waiting, hoping that the extract arrived, that the citizenship comes so we can go to Rome and get bel bambino his Australian passport in time for us to fly down under in January.

It really, really drives me crazy living in Italy some times.

The road to good-bye.

I moved to Italy in April 2006. It had been my dream, my obsession to live here. I had been living in London for 2 years, went back to Australia to give it a go and lasted 8 months. I went back to London and then finally my dream turned into reality as I made the move to Rome.

Why was I obsessed with Italy? I can't explain why I had to live in this country, I had this internal tug pulling me to the place. Many readers and fellow bloggers I think will understand. Maybe my subconscious knew that bel marito was waiting. I met him 6 months after moving here and we have been together ever since, now married with a beautiful bel bambino.

I experienced the best of Italy. I have travelled the country far and wide, big cities, small hidden villages, through the mountains and the sea and back. I have lived in Rome, wow, Rome the eternal city, to think that I lived there and properly lived there for a long time.

But that's just the problem. When you live in a place, and I mean really live in a place you see and experience it in a different way. Working for the British travel company I was ignorant. We got paid in sterling into my British bank account, our apartments in the centre of these cities, these towns were paid for. At the beginning I was never in need of a doctor or a hospital, I had never set foot into a public school, never worked with an Italian company, never knew that corruption, scandal and out right lies was the way of the Italian world.

Bel marito opened my eyes to a lot of things and when we met he was all in favour of moving to Australia. It was I who had the dream of Italy, I who wanted to live the Italian life, I who wanted to stay. So we stayed, we worked, we travelled, we got married, we had a baby and now I think of what he wanted all those years ago.

Ever since bel bambino came into my life it is hard to be positive here in Italy. I am happy, I really enjoy my new job but that's not enough. Bel marito has been out of work for sometime. His company had not paid him for months and months (which is not uncommon here) and when they finally, slowly started to pay, they closed down. They tried to move him to a different area with pay so poor and a job he hated that we both agreed he shouldn't go. Italians live a fearful life. Many here in the south have poorly paid jobs that they hate, but they are too scared to leave. They know that there is next to no work out there. Employers play on this fear and give low wages, make you work cash in hand, or give you pointless contracts. I don't like this at all. I come from a country where if you want to work you can work, where getting paid on time is not a bonus but the norm. At job interviews here they say 'and we pay on time too.' This should not be a selling point it should be the way!

Here in the south (I don't know about the north as I have only ever lived in the south) finding work depends on who you know. If you don't know anyone important or influential then your chances of finding a good job are scarce. Bel marito knows people but he doesn't want to rely on them to find him a job. What happens if they find him a job he hates? He will be obliged to stay there won't he? Rather he stays at home and looks after the bel bambino. He is the best husband and the best father in the world.

We can't go on like this. Alone, without a bel bambino if you're not sick and have an ok job then life can be great. It was for us before. But with a baby, with the need to go to the doctor and the hospital often,with a view towards the future....well....

When bel marito and I talked about our future we could never envision it. We started renovating the country house but our future plans were grey. You know when you can see your future clearly planned out, or at least what you think your future will be? Maybe you think 1, 2, 10 years ahead and imagine where you will be. We tried doing that, but over and over again bel marito used to say he could not see which way our future would go. We were trying to live the Italian life but the vision just wasn't clear.

After reading this and my last posts I think you know that our vision has cleared, it is no longer grey but a bright white of possibility. Yes, in answer to your questions we are hopefully going to go. Back to Australia. A country which can give bel bambino endless possibilities. And us too.

It is going to be a long and hard road to get there. We need to apply for a partner visa for bel marito to migrate. We need proof of our relationship, finances, life together and a lot of proof which I hope after digging around we have. We haven't applied yet as the application is big, we are still in the hunting and gathering stage. But at least the vision finally is clear.

I thought I would be sad at the prospect of leaving my beloved Italy but I'm not. I want to leave this country with beautiful memories and I fear that if I stay too much longer my memories will not be so sweet.